Dodgers relief pitcher Kenley Jansen points to the sky after the final out of Game 2 of the NLDS on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. Jansen was one of six relief pitchers who combined to get the final 15 outs of an 8-5 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. (Photo by John McCoy, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

LOS ANGELES — Rich Hill broke into the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs in 2005. It was a different era for game strategy, a time when an old school manager might have deemed a four-inning start an abject failure.

Hill pitched four innings Saturday in the Dodgers’ 8-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the National League Division Series. He could have pitched deeper into the game, with only 78 pitches wearing on his left arm and two runs against his ledger, but Manager Dave Roberts had eight relief pitchers at his disposal.

“Whatever it is that you can give on that night, in these playoff games, is what the team needs,” Hill said. “If you go out there and have the pitch come out of your hand the way you want it to as many times as possible, there are going to be guys behind you who are going to pick you up as well. That’s something that I’ve been able to learn over the course of my career.”

In eight postseason games prior to the Dodgers’ 8-5 win Saturday, only two starting pitchers lasted seven innings. Coincidentally, both of them – the Chicago Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks and the Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg – started opposite each other on Friday.

At times they made it look easy. Other moments left room for second-guessing. In the end, the bullpen got the Dodgers to within one win of their second consecutive trip to the National League Championship Series.

Hill “didn’t have his best stuff,” Roberts said, “but still found a way to keep us in the ballgame, made some big pitches. Cingrani came in and got a big out for us and Kenta, and Brandon – Brandon made one bad pitch but outside that was very good – and Kenley for five outs. So that’s how we had to mix and match today, but credit to the entire team.”

The Dodgers had the luxury of extending their relievers. Clayton Kershaw pitched 6⅓ innings Friday as the Dodgers captured Game 1 of the best-of-five series. The three pitchers who finished that game (Watson, Morrow and Jansen) threw a total of 26 pitches.

“It was very good for them to be efficient,” Roberts said. “Not as important as it is in a seven-game series when you have the three in a row with the off-days here. In this short series I think that that’s nice, but for them to be efficient and feel that I can go back to them and extend them if need be, that’s a good thing.”

Hill allowed a two-run home run to Paul Goldschmidt in the first inning Saturday. Regardless of his effectiveness, the game dictated his exit. The bases were loaded when Hill’s spot in the batting order came up in the bottom of the fourth inning, with Arizona leading 2-1.

Kyle Farmer pinch hit for Hill and struck out against Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray. But a wild pitch scored a run to tie the score, and the next batter, Chris Taylor, delivered a go-ahead RBI single. The Dodgers had a 3-2 lead and didn’t trail the rest of the game.

Cingrani, the first pitcher out of the bullpen, faced only one batter and retired David Peralta on a groundout.

Maeda was up next. Not only did he get two quick outs to end the top of the fifth inning, he was allowed to bat for himself in the bottom of the inning.

But after he struck out J.D. Martinez to start the sixth inning, Maeda was removed from the game. The Dodgers led 7-2 at that point and Maeda conceivably had a few pitches left in him. The right-hander started 25 games in the regular season before shifting to the bullpen this month.

“He’s on this roster to get righties out and the splits: he’s really been a righty killer,” Roberts said of Maeda. “So when you look at three or four lefties down in the lineup, though he was throwing the baseball well, I thought that it was a good spot for Tony (Watson), and I went with him. But Kenta threw the heck out of it.”

Watson, a left-hander, was selected with two of the next three batters hitting from the left side. Daniel Descalso grounded out on one pitch. Chris Iannetta, a right-handed hitter, hammered a low fly ball to right-center field, but it hung up long enough for Yasiel Puig to make the catch on the run, ending the sixth inning.

The Diamondbacks made things interesting in the seventh.

Watson started the inning but allowed back-to-back singles to Jake Lamb and Ketel Marte. Roberts replaced Watson with Morrow, who threw seven pitches Friday and was the team’s most reliable set-up man in the regular season. The move backfired.

Pinch hitter Brandon Drury blasted a three-run home run to left field, bringing Arizona within 7-5. It was the first home run Morrow had allowed since Sept. 2016, and the first extra-base hit he’d allowed since July 4.

That proved to be the height of Saturday’s chaos.

Morrow finished the seventh inning unscathed. Fields took over in the eighth inning, struck out Martinez, and allowed a double to Descalso.

Jansen, fresh off a 16-pitch outing the night before, relieved Fields in search of the final five outs. The 30-year-old closer delivered, striking out two en route to his first save of the postseason. It was his first five-out save since June 25.

“We talked about the possibility of six outs today,” Jansen said. “Then it was a five-out save.”

For closers accustomed to the tension of the ninth inning and the adrenaline that comes with it, pitching in non-save situations can be difficult. Jansen is no different.

Now, he said, “the save situation, I just throw it out of the window. It’s just finish games. That’s the mindset that I have right now. Yesterday it was the same mindset. It’s going to continue to be the same mindset now until all the way through.”

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